Hyderabad: In pre-British days, Hindus and Muslims were educated through Pathsalas and Madrasas respectively, but the advent of Britishers created a new place of learning namely Missionaries. They aimed to create a class of Indian who would be “Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste”-who would act as interpreters between the Government and the masses.
Today, India is a rapidly developing country in which inclusive, high-quality education is of utmost significance for its future prosperity. The country is currently in a youth bulge phase. It has the largest youth population in the world—a veritable army of 600 million young people under the age of 25. Fully 28% of the population is less than 14 years of age, and with more than 30 babies being born every minute, population growth rates are expected to remain at around 1% for years. India is expected to overtake China as the largest country on earth by 2022 and grow to about 1.5 billion people by 2030.
This demographic change could be a powerful engine of economic growth and development: If India manages to modernize and expand its education system, raise educational attainment levels, and provide skills to its youth, it could gain a significant competitive advantage over swiftly ageing countries.
Following points explain the development of education in India after independence:
Development of Technical Education:
For education and research in engineering and technology of international standard, 7 institutes have been established and National Institute of Technology These were called Regional College of Engineering (REC). These are 17 in number throughout the country. for business management and administration, institutes are located at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Lucknow, Indore. In 2020 There are 126 Technical universities.
Medical education
Only 28 medical colleges in the country in 1950-51. There were 165 medical and 40 dental colleges in the country in 1998-99 There were 398 Medical colleges in 2014-15 and at present, there are, 539 colleges (2019 -20).
Women education
Female literacy was 18 per cent in 1950. While in 1971 only 22% of Indian women were literate, by the end of 2001 54.16% female were literate. The growth of female literacy rate is 14.87% as compared to 11.72 % of that of male literacy rate. Among all literates, 33,42,50,358 are females. The literacy rate of India in 2011 is 74.0 per cent. The literacy rate among females is 65.5 per cent. The female literacy rate is considerably low in India at around 60 per cent, which is 22 percentage points below the world average.
Vocational education
National Policy of Education, 1986, aimed at vocationalisation of secondary education. Central Govt. provided grants to State Governments to implement the programme since 1988. Agriculture, Pisciculture, diary, poultry, typing, electronics, mechanical and carpentry etc. had been included in the higher secondary curriculum.
In the NEP 2020, Vocational education will start in schools from the 6th grade and will include internships.
Encouragement to Indian Language and Culture After the adoption of the National Policy of Education 1968, regional language became the medium of instruction in higher education. Syllabus on science and technology, dictionaries, books, and Question Papers are translated into regional languages. Indian history and culture have been included in the school and college curriculum.
NEP 2020
• The policy has emphasized mother tongue/local language/regional language as the medium of instruction at least till Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond.
• Sanskrit to be offered at all levels of school and higher education as an option for students, including in the three-language formula.
• Other classical languages and literature of India also to be available as options.
• Students to participate in a fun project/activity on ‘The Languages of India’, sometime in Grades 6-8, such as, under the ‘Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat’ initiative.
• Several foreign languages will also be offered at the secondary level. Indian Sign Language (ISL) will be standardized across the country, and National and State curriculum materials developed, for use by students with hearing impairment.
Adult education
The education for the illiterate people belonging to the age group of 15-35 years. The National Board of Adult Education was established in the First Five Year Plan. The village-level workers were assigned the job of providing adult education. The progress remained not too good. The Centre assists states, voluntary organisations and some selected universities to implement this programme.
National Education Policy 2020 aims to achieve 100 per cent youth and adult literacy.
Problems of Education:
• Despite our best efforts, our educational development remains at a low level. The lack of sufficient funds is the main problem in the development of education. The outlay for education in Five Year Plans has been decreasing. Due to insufficient funds, most educational institutions lack infrastructure, science equipment and libraries etc.
• University, professional and technical education has become costly in India. Fee structure of technical and professional institutes like IIM’s is quite high IIM’s charge Rs. 2 lakh per semester for MBA classes.
• The medium of instruction particularly in science subjects is English. So rural students who are not well versed in English, cannot study science properly in English. They suffer a lot; Indian languages are still underdeveloped.
• When deserving candidates do not get suitable jobs in the country, they prefer to go abroad for seeking jobs. So our country is deprived of good talent. This phenomenon is called ‘Brain drain’.
• Despite constitutional directives and economic planning, we are not able to achieve cent per cent literacy. -Even now 35 per cent of people remain illiterate. In India, the number of illiterates is almost one-third of the total illiterates in the world. Advanced countries are 100% literate; the position in India is quite dismal.
• Our education system is based on General Education. The dropout rate is very high in the primary and secondary level. Most of the students in 6-14 age groups leave the school before completing their education.
• Our primary education is ridden with too many problems. A large number of primary schools has no buildings what to talk of basic facilities like drinking water, urinals and electricity, furniture and study materials etc. Large numbers of primary schools are single teacher schools and many schools are even without teachers. So the drop rate is very high and a cause of concern.
Education quality
While Indians are spending 68% more time in school (six years in 1990 compared with 10 years in 2016), education quality has increased only marginally (5% over the same period), indicating that the extra years of schooling may be going to waste.
Education quality is determined through analysis of average student scores on internationally comparable tests, to produce a composite score out of 100, the study said.
India has the second-lowest education score (66/100) amongst its South Asian counterparts, slightly ahead of Afghanistan (65) and far behind the group leader, Sri Lanka (75).
COVID-19: Impact on education and related concerns
• All major entrance examinations are postponed including engineering, medical, law, agriculture, fashion and designing courses, etc. private sector universities may some faculties and employees face salary cuts, bonuses and increments can also be postponed.
• The lockdown has generated uncertainty over the exam cycle. May be universities may face impact in terms of a slowdown in student internships and placements, lower fee collection that can create hurdles in managing the working capital.
• Another major concern is that it can affect the paying capacity of several people in the private sector, which is catering to a sizeable section of the students in the country.
• Student counselling operations are also affected.
• Several institutions may pause faculty hiring plans for existing vacancies which in turn affect quality and excellence.
• Structure of schooling and learning includes teaching and assessment methodologies and due to closure, it will be affected.
• Technology may play an important role in the lockdown period like a study from home and work from home. In India, some private schools could adopt online teaching methods. Low-income private and government school may not be able to adopt online teaching methods. And as a result, there will be completely shut down due to no access to e-learning solutions.
In addition to the opportunities for learning, students will also miss their meals and may result in economic and social stress.
• Higher education sectors are also disrupted which again pave an impact on the country's economic future. Various students from India took admissions in abroad like the US, UK, Australia, China etc. And these countries are badly affected due to COVID-19. Maybe there is a possibility that students will not take admissions there in future and if the situation persists, in the long run then there will be a decline in the demand for international higher education also.
• Another major concern is employment. Students those have completed their graduation may have fear in their minds of withdrawal of job offers from the corporate sector due to the current situation. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy's estimates unemployment shortage from 8.4% in mid-March to 23% in early April. In the urban unemployment rate is 30.9%.
